Trees, Anniversaries, Kak si?

It's our second day in Borovetz (land of the pine trees) and so much has happened already!
We all survived the long, grueling flight...I survived a minor nervous breakdown the night before, which my wonderful roommate Toni (who also helped me to start this blog...thank you, Toni!!) helped me to navigate. There was not much sleep to be had, but many people to meet, both within and outside of Peace Corps (hereafter PC). Took us a few hours to get through the checkout at DC with all 5o of us. A group of Catholic youth and about 100 people were flying to Frandfurt at about the same time...to hang out and meet the pope. Needless to say we provided a healthy challenge to the airport and the airlines!

PC Erica and I met a humorous lad called Ian who is from the US but grew up in Saudi Arabia and is heading to study in France. His mom, Robin, teaches kids in Saudi Arabia and was very excited to talk to some of us PC volunteers. So many people, so many stories, ai, ai, ai, it's all so amazing :)

We landed in Sofia in the afternoon of Monday, August 15th, the same day as the 57th anniversary of my grandparents! Coincidence! Some people in the PC group learned how to say happy anniversary in Bulgarian...'Chestita godishnina'. Two of the PC volunteers who learned it were Jack and Rhonda, a beautiful couple from Alaska who had their 29th anniversary on Sunday, August 14th.

At the airport, we were all met by the PC country director, a very nice, funny person who started our training this morning. Outside the gate, i was met by a 'welcoming delegation' including grandparents, two aunts, and cousins. Not much time to talk but enough time to hug, kiss, and hear that "it's not a good idea to learn Turkish". As we were waiting for the bus, some of the PCVolunteers got together and said, "Chestita godishnina" to my grandparents. Grandpa felt very touched by the whole experience, close to tears, and he wanted to say a few words...he said "welcome to this Bulgarian land, soiled with the blood and love of the Bulgarian people...i wish you a successful service. i see in your faces hardworking individuals who will help us get through this chaotic situation in a peaceful way," well that was the general gist of it. IT was so touching...i felt close to tears a few times during the experience at the airport. Then, we all got on the bus, with the help of many staff members from Peace Corps and Bulgaria and we shipped off to Borovets.

The road to Borovets was a winding mountain road, passing by lakes, rivers, and many trees, deciduous as well as evergreen. We're staying in Hotel Zodiac. The youth development assistant trainer is called Daniela...another staff member is called Elena...another one is Vesselka, Vessi for short...she's my 'adash' since we have the same name. We had training all day today and i think i can speak for most of us when i say that we're pretty pooped. The first language lesson was today...everyone learned how to say hello-dobur den, how are you?-kak si? (saying kak si over and over got a few laughs from many people since kak sounds an awful lot like an English word that i won't mention :) ),
i am bla-bla-as sum bla bla (as sum was fun to say for people since it sounds like 'awesome')

That's about it for now...feel free to send me a line from the land of plenty, cheers...plenty of cheers :)